Money a motivator in I-75 earmark?

A House committee chairman is credited with putting $10 million into the federal transportation bill for a study of an interchange at I-75 and Coconut Road ... the question is 'why?'

By Julio Ochoa

reprinted from Bonita Daily News, Sunday, April 16, 2006

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, isn’t talking. But his money is.

The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who is credited with putting a $10 million earmark in the federal transportation bill to study an Interstate 75 interchange at Coconut Road, has been quiet about how the money got there.

However, a fundraiser Young held at the Hyatt Coconut Point in Estero after a town hall meeting at Florida Gulf Coast University on Feb. 19, 2005, is speaking volumes.

Some believe contributions from that fundraiser hold the key to understanding how the unrequested money for the interchange study made its way into the federal transportation bill, which lawmakers approved last year.

Although it isn’t clear exactly who was at the fundraiser, campaign disclosure records filed by Young show he recorded $41,750 in donations on the same day — March 8, 2005, slightly more than two weeks after the fundraiser at the Hyatt. Of that amount, $16,750 came from donors who listed addresses in Naples, Bonita Springs and Fort Myers, and additional thousands came in from individuals or groups with connections to Southwest Florida.

At least one of the donors had a particular interest in the intersection.
Daniel Aronoff, a part-time Naples resident, owns two 600-acre sections of property directly east of where the interchange could go. Aronoff’s $500 contribution to Young’s campaign was reported at the same time that others from the fundraiser were filed.

A few months later, Aronoff contributed $2,500 to Young’s Midnight Sun Political Action Committee, which raises money to contribute to the campaigns of Republicans in contested races.

Aronoff couldn’t be located for comment.

When lawmakers approved the bill, many Lee County officials were surprised by the earmark for an interchange that wasn’t in the county’s long-range transportation plans.

For some, the contributions are enough to indicate that Young placed the $10 million in the bill based on special interests.

“To me, it looks very transparent,” Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah said. “It’s very transparent of what’s going on to the detriment of public interest.”

Judah, who is on Lee County’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, fought to keep the interchange out of the group’s long-range transportation plans.
He and several environmental groups are against the project because they fear it would make way for development on environmentally sensitive lands to the east of the interstate.

Judah also doesn’t want the federal government and special interests influencing transportation decisions in Lee County, he said. Twice, Judah was successful in getting enough members of the MPO to agree with him.

However, when he reintroduced the issue at March’s MPO meeting in hopes of using the earmark to study an interchange with access only to the west, his initiative failed when members voted to put the project in Lee County’s 2030 Transportation Plan.

Earmarks
If skeptics are right, it wouldn’t be the first time special interests influenced funding in the federal transportation bill, said Keith Ashdown, spokesman for Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group that follows political contributions.

With 6,374 earmarks tagged onto the federal transportation bill at a cost of $24 billion, Lee County is not the only area affected by special interests, Ashdown said.

The bill is loaded with projects that made it in because of politics, not their ability to reduce traffic or save lives, Ashdown said.

“A lot of people have learned the way to get earmarks is to grease the wheels and throw a little campaign cash in the direction of the representative from Alaska,” he said. “It’s outrageous. Projects should be chosen on merit, not just because you have deep pockets.”

But the practice seems to be becoming more of a standard in Congress because it is hard to prove a direct connection between fundraising and earmarks, Ashdown said.

“There is nothing illegal about campaign cash,” he said. “If it looks, smells and quacks like a bribe, it’s a bribe, but because he is not personally benefiting, it is not legally considered a bribe.”

Fundraising
It is not uncommon for a congressman to hold fundraisers to get campaign contributions outside of his or her home state, said Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fort Myers.

Mack said he has done it several times.

So has Young, according to campaign contribution records.

So far, during the 2006 election cycle, Young has raised 84 percent of his itemized campaign contributions from individuals in states other than his own, according to FEC Info, a company that tracks campaign contributions reported to the Federal Elections Commission.

The state with the highest amount of contributions is Arkansas, which also received a mysterious earmark in the federal transportation bill.
In 2004, when lawmakers were still drafting the bill, Arkansas politicians held a fundraiser for Young that raised about $42 million for his re-election campaign.

Several proponents of a project to extend an Arkansas highway attended the meeting and donated to Young’s Midnight Sun PAC.

Months later, many in Arkansas were surprised to find $40 million in the House’s version of the federal transportation bill for the highway project.
Like the proposed Coconut Road interchange, Arkansas’ highway project wasn’t in the area’s long-term plans.

By the time lawmakers approved the bill, the $40 million earmark rose to $72 million and required a state match.

Young’s fundraiser at the Hyatt helped Florida achieve its rank of sixth in the nation in individual contributions to Young’s campaign, according to FEC Info.

Mack said he helped organize the fundraiser for Young.

“Any time a powerful chairman of a committee comes to Southwest Florida, it is a good thing,” Mack said. “I was happy that the chairman took time to come and happy to help in any way I could.”

Contributors reported on Young’s March 8, 2005, filing who could be reached for comment said they attended the fundraiser and donated because they support improving Southwest Florida’s infrastructure.
“We support anything that will enhance the expansion if I-75,” said Michael Reitmann, executive director of the Lee Building Industry Association. “I personally wrote a check because I believe Rep. Young can help the area.”
With a university, an airport and the addition of a major mall in the Coconut Road area, funding to study an I-75 interchange makes absolute sense, Reitmann said.

“I hear comments made about political agendas,” he said. “It’s the typical response from anti-growth advocates and commissioners that have their own political agenda.”

Tina Matte, spokeswoman for the Southwest Florida Transportation Initiative, said her agency has met with Young on several occasions to talk about expanding I-75.

The fundraiser was another opportunity to garner Young’s support, said Matte, who attended the event.

“Chairman Young, being the chair of one of the most-powerful committees in Washington, travels all the time,” Matte said. “It’s certainly not unusual that a community hosts him and supports his efforts.”

Southwest Florida has many transportation needs, Mack said. The chairman put $81 million in the transportation bill to help with the I-75 expansion and also recognized that the area needs more east-west corridors, Mack said.

“Infrastructure is so important to the quality of life and safety in Southwest Florida,” he said. “Anytime we have an opportunity to improve our infrastructure in Southwest Florida, we have to take that seriously.”
But opponents of the interchange don’t buy that argument.

County planners have identified a multitude of other projects that take precedence over the Coconut Road interchange, said Don Eslick, chairman of the Estero Council of Community Leaders, who, along with many other residents in Estero, opposes the interchange.

Eslick said he believes leaders in Lee County were taken in by special interests and the lure of $10 million.

“It is the worst display of influence peddling that is associated with these earmarks,” Eslick said. “It’s a national thing reaching down to our area and trying to distort what our people are trying to do.”

After all of the facts surrounding the earmark come to light, Eslick said, he hopes leaders in Southwest Florida learn their lesson.

“You can’t blame people for being taken the first time something like this happens,” Eslick said. “I would hope that we’ve learned from this experience and would prevent it in the future.”
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U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, held a fundraiser at the Hyatt Coconut Point in Estero on Feb. 19, 2005. Slightly more than two weeks later, on March 8, 2005, his campaign contribution reports recorded the following donations:
Robert Anestis, CEO Florida East Coast Industries, Ponte Vedra Beach: $2,000
Robert Anestis, CEO Florida East Coast Industries, Ponte Vedra Beach: $2,500
Daniel Aronoff, executive with The Landon Companies, Birmingham, Mich.: $500
Frederick Barber, engineer with Agnolia, Barber & Brundigh, Bonita Springs: $500
Carl Barraco, engineer with Barraco & Associates, Fort Myers: $500
Wayne Byers, vice president Holland America Line Inc., Belleveue, Wash.: $250
Miles Collier, Collier Enterprises, Naples: $2,000
Parker Collier, Collier Enterprises, Naples: $500
Theresa Collier, Collier Enterprises, Naples: $500
Barron Collier II, Collier Enterprises, Naples: $2,000
K. Earl Durden, chairman Rail Mgmt. & Consulting, Panama City: $1,000
Karen Durden, president Rail Mgmt. & Consulting, Panama City: $1,000
Michael Durden, Rail Mgmt. & Consulting, Panama City: $1,000
Florida Rock Industries, Jacksonville: $2,000
Harold Fried, attorney, Birmingham, Mich.: $500
John Garvalia, additional information not available, Bonita Springs: $500
David Genson, additional information not available, Naples: $500
Amy Gravina, consultant with Gravina Smith & Matte, Fort Myers: $500
Deborah Greenberg, additional information not available, Naples: $1,000
Greyhound Lines PAC, Dallas, Texas: $1,000
Johan Groothuizen, vice president of marine hotel operations, Holland American Lines, Seattle, Wash., $250
Christopher Hanlon, additional information not available, Naples: $1,000
HNTB Corporation PAC, Kansas City, Mo.: $2,000
Alfred Hoffman, CEO Florida Design, Fort Myers: $2,000
Ingram Barge Company PAC, Nashville, Tenn.: $1,000
Norman Lent, attorney with Lent Scrivner & Roth LLC, Alexandria, Va.: $250
Susan Heck Lent, homemaker, Alexandria, Va.: $250
Tina Matte, executive with Bonita Bay Group, Fort Myers: $500
Heather Mazurkiewicz, additional information not available, Fort Myers: $1,000
John McPherson, additional information not available, Ponte Vedra Beach, $2,000
John McPherson, additional information not available, Ponte Vedra Beach, $2,500
Albert O’Donnell, owner O’Donnell Landscapes, Estero: $500
Parson Brinckerhoff Inc. PAC, New York, N.Y.: $500
Michael Reitmann Jr., executive vice president of Lee Building Industry Association, Fort Myers: $500
Jerry L. Starkey, WCI Communities, Naples: $2,000
G. Donald Thompson, attorney with Henderson Franklin, Bonita Springs: $250
AMO Voluntary PCF PAC, $5,000, Dania
Total: $41,750

© 2005 Bonita Daily News and The Banner. Published in Bonita Springs, Florida, USA by the E.W. Scripps Co.